Welcome to the February 24th meeting of the MCCSE Board of School Trustees. We ask that you come to
order. We'll start with a celebration of success. This is a time set aside to celebrate members of our
school community. Ms. Harmon? Thank you, President Cooperman, Dr. Winston, Board of Trustees, and community
members. It's my pleasure to share this month's excellent spotlight, and we have quite a number of people
to honor tonight.
This is a feature of every regular board of school trustees meeting, and we look forward to honoring
the excellence occurring every day through the dedication of our MCCSE employees, students, and volunteers
who make a difference in our school community and foster environments that reflect the MCCSE mission,
vision, and core values. For our February excellence spotlight, we are honoring Mr. William Harper,
Clear Creek lead custodian. We're proud to recognize Mr. William Harper, Clear Creek's lead custodian.
Mr. Harper collaborates daily to enhance the Clear Creek grounds and facilities, taking exceptional
pride in his work and in our school community. His initiative, strong work ethic, and dedication make
him a positive role model for both students and staff. Mr. Harper was instrumental in bringing the Clear
Creek Reading Hammock Garden to life. His reliability, creativity, and team-centered spirit continue
to make him deeply valued and inspiring member of our school community. I do not believe he was able
to attend tonight, though. Is that correct?
Thank you. In addition, we are honoring quite a number of our students tonight. In November, the Indiana
American String Teachers Association South All-Region Orchestra brought together for the first time
middle and high school string students from across southern Indiana for a full day of intensive rehearsals,
sectionals with instrumental specialists, and a public performance under the direction of distinguished
guest conductors. This experience promotes advanced musicianship
collaboration, and excellence in string performance. MCCSE is proud to recognize students from
the Bloomington High School North, Bloomington High School South, Tri-North Middle School, and Jackson
Creek Middle School who were selected to participate. Directors nominated students based on skill and
readiness for the demands of the ensemble, and these musicians represented the district with dedication
and artistry. We're here to recognize them tonight. From Jackson Creek Middle School, Sadie Evans,
Quinn Hightower, Juniper Seek. From Tri-North Middle School, Samuel Ospina-Mateus, Daniel Ospina-Mateus,
and Newhours Sibai. From Bloomington High School North, Aralyn Olivo, Francesca Samoroto. And
from Bloomington High School South, Edward Che and Hai-Yoon Him. And I believe they are here tonight
to be recognized.
Would the students who Ms. Harmon just called please come forward? Their collective faces all at the
same time.
Thank you.
Thank you. A couple of you come in a little bit.
Thank you.
Thank you so much. Any member who is recognized tonight is free to go unless they'd like to stay for
our full meeting. Thank you.
Earlier, I was like, there's a lot of people here. Wow. Thank you, Ms. Harmon. We will now receive our
quarterly update on the activities of the MCCSE Foundation from Mrs. Helm, the foundation director.
Dr. Demuth and other members of the school board. So we've been busy as always. The big reminder is
if you are graduating senior or you're a family member that wants to push them in there, scholarships
are open. So we have over $25,000 that we will award this spring. Application and descriptions are available
on our website, pretty easy mccsfoundation.org.
have until March 31st to complete those. There's a series of them that you apply into through an application
and then there's some that are selected through the schools themselves. If you see something in the
schools I always tell them visit your counselor and find out what the criteria is for that. All right
today was an exciting day because my board met at noon time and
They are approving our second grant cycle. So that just finished up. We changed it around a little bit
this time. So it closed in January. The committee met last Tuesday. And I really want to thank our building
reps. They do an incredible job of helping us with this, trying to make sure that faculty in the buildings
know about the program, help them be successful in their grant, kind of how to structure it, what the
committee is looking for. So I really appreciate that.
We had a request of funding for $35,917. We were able to award a good portion of that. We had 15 grants
that were awarded, and the total on those grants is $27,201. So I feel like they did a really, really,
really good job of doing that. And I just want to thank each one of them for putting their heart and
soul into making those decisions.
We also had a little bit of funding in a specific budget category. Donor says can only be used certain
ways. So we definitely honor that. And that was in our science space. So I got an email over the weekend
that some of you saw. And I got corrected today. There are eight Science Olympiad teams moving on to
the state level.
So I had our board approved to take the rest of that funding that would have gone if someone had written
a grant for it. So it totals seventeen hundred dollars and we're going to push that into those ECA counts
to help them make it to state. So I was told by Dr. Milks today that they're going to spread it apart.
Now each team's registration is paid.
So they don't have to worry about that side of it. I think they just got to worry about getting themselves
there. So anyway, we're happy to do that. And that gives us our total grant funding for the year at
$71,582 this year. So we're really proud of that. That's a little bit higher. That is higher than what
we have been doing. And we've had a very generous donor in the background on some of that. And they're
very excited about the work that's happening with those grants as well.
gems is coming up girls in engineering math and science this is a partnership between the foundation
and the corporation so i give that committee all the accolades because they're doing the heavy listing
i'm just finding the money um so i want to thank our sponsors that is cimtra boston scientific and tristar
those are our sponsors on that and we really appreciate them coming in so that the students who participate
get quite a bit of swag and it also helps
with some materials that are needed that day for the breakout room. So we really appreciate that. It's
March 28th, so registration is open if any of you on the school board want to come take a look at that.
It's a pretty exciting day actually. It's very exciting. It brings in a lot of women in science throughout
the community. It brings them in and the kids have a great day working with those to try to enrich getting
more students into careers in the STEM field.
Fundraisers we're kind of moving into that space. So I want to just give you a couple of them that are
that are coming in and these are some of the ones that make it possible for us to do what we're doing.
The duck race we launched last year. It's back and it's probably not going anywhere for a while because
it's really fun. May 2nd, mark your calendar. It'll be at Woolery mill from 11 AM to 4 PM.
The reading challenge for this begins April 1, so we'll be getting the forms out to the elementary schools
and we also push them into middle school for any middle schoolers that want to participate in the reading
challenge as well. There's entertainment that's being lined up. We get a lot of student performances
that come in that day. A lot of the student performances are at the elementary level, so it's really
kind of fun to see that. It's not usually a highly visible thing in the corporation. You usually think
of that more of going to
the high school performances, but they're all at ISMA that day. So we're finding the talent at younger
ages, and it's working incredibly well. There'll be games, activities, the Jeep show, food,
and Duck Eats. And the big way that we make the money out of this, there are sponsorships that we're
selling, and I want to thank Old National Bank. They're our first sponsor in, so I want to thank them
for their commitment to it again this year. But the Duck adoptions, you'll see that.
Basically, the way this works, Jim Meyer is back with us this year, and he will bring in a group of
STEM students. We load in ducks into the fountain. If you weren't there to watch the drop last year,
just imagine over 3,000 ducks dropping into the Woolery Mill Fountain. It shows you how incredibly large
it is when you start putting in a 2 by 2 duck. So gaming commission allows us this year to sell them
online. Yeah.
Yay, gonna simplify it a lot. So I'm working with a company now. We will be getting those forms up and
available online. So you can buy your duck adoptions online this year. And you can also forward it to
a friend to buy their duck adoptions online. There are two criteria to that though. They have to be
in the state of Indiana, gaming rules, not mine, gaming commissions rules, and they have to be over 18.
So just keep those in mind when you see that coming out. And the software does screen for that. So that's
why we have to use an outside company. So look forward to that. Golf will be back June 4th. Eagle Point
this year. That's going to be a change for us this year. Normally we are at the Bloomington Country
Club under construction. So we're going to take this out to Eagle Point and have a great time. A lot
of information coming forth for that. But keep that on your calendar for June 4th. Thank you. And that's
my report.
On behalf of the board, thank you, Mrs. Helm. I really enjoyed the duck race last year, so I'm looking
forward to it again this year. Now is our time for public comment. Did we get a no? OK, just kidding.
There is no public comment. So now for our consideration is the consent agenda that includes the following.
Minutes from the board meeting held on January 27, 2026.
Memorandum for the executive sessions on January 31st and February 10th, 2026. Overnight out of state
field trips, financial report, January 2026. Appropriation balance report, January 2026. Register of
claims, February 24th, 2026. Payroll register and payroll claims, January 2026. Request to declare as
surplus an authorized disposal of out of date items.
Do I have a motion regarding the approval of the consent agenda? So moved. Do I have a second? Second.
It's been moved by Ross and seconded by Asia that we approve the consent agenda as presented. All those
in favor of approving the consent agenda signify by saying aye. Aye. All those against say nay. Any
abstentions? The motion passes.
Next for our considerations are the donations. We have received donations of over $2,000. Thank you
to all our donors. Your generosity is appreciated. Do I have a motion to accept the donations? So moved.
Second. Thanks, Ross. I think it's been moved by Ashley and seconded by Ross that we accept the donations
as presented. All those in favor of approving the donations, signify by saying aye. Aye.
All those against say no. Any abstentions? Motion carries. Now we'll move on to old business. We will
now hear from Dr. Jeff Henderson on the community input on the former Herald-Times building. Dr. Henderson?
Good evening, President Cooperman, Dr. Winston, and members of the Board of School Trustees. Thank you
for the opportunity to share summary data this evening.
from public input on the former Herald-Times building. Just as a reminder, the Herald-Times building
was purchased in 2022 for potential future use. It consists of an eight-acre site with six usable acres, 77,000-plus
square feet of space centrally located within the MCCSC, approximately 170-plus
parking spaces and a variety of design that includes office space, storage, loading docks and large
span areas. And as a reminder, when this administrative team began its tenure, there was no formal written
plan in place for the use of the property. At the November 2025 MCCSC school board meeting, the board
directed Superintendent Winston to gather public input regarding the former Herald Times property for
the board to consider.
Two methods for gathering that public input were designed and implemented, the first of which being
a online public survey which ran from January 8th to January 30th and received a total of 404 responses.
In addition to that, a public forum was held on January 29th in the Bloomington High School South Auditorium.
There were approximately 12 community members in attendance with four public commenters.
During the public forum, a transcript was created and incorporated into the summary data that I'll be
reviewing with you this evening. Again, 404 online responses and four in-person responses for a total
of 408 represented in the data. Prior to the public input opportunity, we provided information to the
public about the building and that
Same information was linked with the online public survey for respondents to be able to reference prior
to submitting their responses. Both the survey and the forum consisted of two open-ended questions.
They were intentionally designed to be open-ended to allow natural themes from respondents to occur.
The first question or prompt that was asked
was what do you think would be the best use or uses for this building? And then the second one was,
is there anything else you'd like the board to consider as they evaluate options for this property?
Again, 408 responses combined between those two. On the slide before you now is the affiliations that
were marked by the 408 respondents.
And it's important to point out that a respondent could select more than one affiliation. 54% of the
respondents indicated that they were a parent or guardian of a current MCCSE student. 13% identified
as an in-district community member. 8% identified as a parent or guardian of alumni. 8% identified themselves
as MCCSE staff members.
8% identified themselves specifically as MCCSC teachers, 4% alumni, 2% students, and 2% identified in
the other category. There was 1% of individuals identified themselves as out of district community members.
Summary of the responses to question number one, the best uses for the building.
40% indicated that the best use was to sell the property. 18% indicated educational programs and services
should be built into the facility. 14% indicated sports facilities. 10% indicated community or social
services. And 7% listed administrative or operational usage, and 6%
indicated career and technical education. And the other responses totaled 5%, but they were unable to
be tightly categorized into a single theme and therefore listed as other. In the next set of slides,
each word cloud will utilize a linear scale with a floor of 12 point font and a ceiling of 42 point font.
where font size is directly proportional to the number of times each verbatim word or phrase appeared
in that theme's survey response, ensuring that visual differences between words accurately reflect real
differences in how they were mentioned, how often they were mentioned. This method was chosen for its
unbiased way to represent community input. So as we look at theme number one, again, reminding you that
40% of respondents
indicated that selling the property was the best use of the property. You'll notice that the word cloud
is dominated by teachers, money, funding, salaries with the overwhelming number of respondents wanting
the proceeds directed to staff compensation and to achieve financial balance. Reminding the community
and the board
Previously presented information about the sale of the property. There are several considerations that
would need to be made. First and most importantly is the state code and procedure for property sale,
which appears on the right hand side in the in the box there. Public hearing with notice provided in
accordance with Indiana code. Following that hearing, the board must approve the sale of the property.
Property then needs to be appraised by two appraisers.
And then the board can proceed to sell the property either at a public auction or retain a licensed
real estate broker to handle the sale of the property. The money for the sale must be deposited in the
operations fund and cannot be used for teacher-related wages and benefits per Indiana code. This one-time
payment or one-time source of income would be able to assist in managing cash balances for the corporation.
Theme number two, centered around educational programs and services. And you'll find that the majority
of responses mention something along the lines of a STEM center concept with tutoring, alternative school
options, and maker spaces also prominent responses with regard to this particular theme. The third theme
that evolved from public input
was athletic and sports facilities, largely driven by the fieldhouse concept with indoor track and gym
space as the core suggestions contained in the public feedback. Theme number four revolved around community
or social services. And again, 10% of respondents indicated that this was their preferred use of the property.
It splits between a community center, a homeless shelter, and affordable housing for the community as
potential uses. The fifth theme that emerged from the responses revolved around the idea of administrative
or district operational usage, focusing on practical needs like storage, a health clinic, and consolidated
office and meeting space for various departments.
sixth theme that evolved centered around career and technical education with six percent of respondents
indicating this as a preference. The responses really center on the idea of expanding the Hoosier Hills
Career Center and vocational and technical education opportunities for students, possibly a south side
location to help minimize transportation.
That moves us on to question number two, and that was anything else you'd like the board to consider.
Of the original 408 responses, only 261 respondents representing 64% of respondents answered question
number two. Given the limited number of respondents to question number two, rather than creating a word
cloud around each one of these topics, the word cloud that I'll show you follows the same pattern,
but looks at the things that are mentioned within these six major considerations that emerged from the
public input. The number in parentheses next to each one of those indicates the number of times a specific
consideration was mentioned. So in this word cloud, again, it utilizes the same design, a 12-point floor
and a 42-point ceiling for the font size.
You'll see that it centers around the concept of money, students, teachers, community, pay,
selling it, staff, renting, and referendum are words that tend to jump out in this theme. Again, I'd
like to thank you for the opportunity to gather public input
and provide it for your consideration here at this evening's board meeting. Our administrative team
stands ready to take whatever next steps the board directs us to take. Thank you, Dr. Henderson. Do
I have any questions or comments for Dr. Henderson from the board? I don't for Dr. Henderson directly,
but I do for Mr. Erwin. One other concern. Excuse me.
One of the concerns the community mentioned there were costs of renovation, et cetera, if we were to
choose to do something creative with that building. Would doing that limit our ability through the bonding
that we approved last fall? Would it limit our ability in the future to do the needed improvements,
maintenance, repairs, et cetera, on our existing student-centered building?
I believe it would. And I say that with this context, our debt service fund has a finite ability to
fund projects as we stay within the constraints and as we manage the ask of the community to fund the
debt service fund. If we were to do $35 million worth of renovations to a building like that, that would
delay the timing of which we'd be able to bond for in the future, future improvements of other buildings.
Thank you. Absolutely. I was just for the folks that are listening at home. I just said thank you to
Dr. Henderson because it was really enlightening to see some of the findings displayed in that manner.
So I appreciate that.
Certainly a joint effort. I'd not do this on my own. Dr. Henderson, you said, if I recall correctly,
you said about 40% of the respondents suggested selling the property and maybe another 10% suggested
that it be used for some kind of community or social services purpose. Would it be fair to say that
that 10% of community and social services are not things that the school corporation would do?
So in my mind, I'm thinking I would sort of lump those together, that 40% and that 10% into sort of
suggestions that the building be used for something not related to the schools. I would agree with the
fact that many of the items that were mentioned under community or social services are not the direct
responsibility of a public school corporation to provide. Thank you. We're not typically building homeless
shelters and
Providing housing services to the community as a part of what we do as an organization Thank you So
effectively that puts us about fifty fifty split then yeah, it seems like that to me. Yeah, okay So
if okay fifty fifty split and fifty percent said sell it and
and they want the money to go towards teacher wages, but the money can't be used for teacher wages.
Where would the money be used for? So the money would be deposited into the operations fund of the school
corporation, and it would be utilized typically one. You've heard you've heard Mr Irwin speak about
not committing one time funds to ongoing costs or recurring costs. And so
The suggestion would be that those would those funds would be utilized to help manage the cash balance
and the various funds in any operation fund Given obviously the implications of SEA one that we've heard
discussed in previous board meetings I Have a kind of follow-on question. Dr. Irwin could that are mr.
Irwin. Sorry. I mean you can be a doctor's honorary degree. That's fine. Great do Could that money be
moved from the operations fund?
into like our rainy day fund? It could, yes. I mean one of the things that we talked about with one-time
funds, Dr. Henderson alluded to this, it has the doctorate right, I don't have it yet, but would be
to put the appropriate safety nets in place to continue to do the cash balances to a place that we want
them to be as a school corporation, whether that be in our operations fund or rainy day fund,
or any of our other funds, right? One of the things that we've talked about that we want to accomplish
is have the appropriate safety nets in place in order to be able to respond to the changing dynamics
of which we operate within as a public school corporation. This was, I think, implied in Ross's question,
but I just want to make sure that we clarify. Again, I think implied in Ross's question was that
The building can't be used for most of these purposes as it is. And so we would need to use money from
our debt services fund to improve it before we could use it in any other way than it's currently being
used. Would that be correct? That's correct. And am I correct that even if we were to basically keep
it for its current use,
storage, parking, spare buses, et cetera. You require some investment just to sound. Sound, if you will.
I know there's some roof. That is correct. There are some concerns over the condition of the roof. Okay.
So, Dr. Henderson, you showed a slide
that had some steps that I take to mean there are some steps that need to be taken before the board
could make a final decision on what to do with the property. Yes. Would you like me to go back to that
slide? If you don't mind. Sure. Thank you. Yes. Located on the right side of this slide, the first step
is that there must be a public hearing and notice provided in accordance with Indiana code five dash
three dash one. And then following that hearing, the board has to approve the sale of the property.
The property would then need to be appraised by two appraisers. And then the board would have two options
with regard to the sale of the property, public auction or engage the services of a licensed real estate
broker to handle the sale. So this question is probably for our attorney, Ms. DeWees and Superintendent
Winston. Have the public forum that we held, does that meet the criteria for under step one for the statute?
It is not. OK. So in order for us to kind of have all the options on the table, we would have to post
notice that meets the statutory requirements and then hold a hearing? Correct. May I request that we
post that notice and hold a hearing so that we have all the options on the table? Absolutely. I'll certainly
work with Attorney DeWees on that. Thank you. Are there any other questions from the board on this issue?
Would our appraisal that we had done in the fall before this discussion even came up be valid as one
of the required appraisals under the statute? Yes, we do believe so. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Absolutely.
Thank you, Mr. Irwin and everyone who helped answer our questions. Thank you. Next for our consideration
is the personnel report.
Do I have a motion to approve the personnel report as presented? So moved. Second. It's been moved by
Ashley and seconded by April that we approve the personnel report as presented. Dr. Henderson.
Thank you, President Cooperman, Dr. Winston, and members of the Board of School Trustees. This evening
I would like to call to your attention the following retirements. Julie Ann Olson,
Miss Olson has been with MCCSC for the last 29 and a half years, most recently serving as a grade six
teacher at Highland Park Elementary School. Wendy Tamburino. Miss Tamburino has been with MCCSC for
the last 30 years, most recently serving as a grade six teacher at Benford Elementary School. And last
but not least, Mary Wicker. Miss Wicker has been with MCCSC for the last
40 years, most recently serving as a hearing impaired teacher at Fairview Elementary School. Altogether,
the retirees presented this evening represent a combined total of 99 and one half years of service to
our school community. On behalf of MCCSC, I would like to extend a special thank you to all of these
individuals for their many years of dedicated service and wish them well in their next adventures.
At this time, I request that you please approve the recommendations as presented in your board packet
in the personnel report. Thank you, Dr. Henderson. Do I have any comments from the board? I just want
to wish Ms. Olson well. Both my kids have had her in one capacity or another, and she's a wonderful
person. And we will really miss her dearly over there. She's done a lot of really great things for our students.
I'll just echo Dr. Henderson's thank you to those retirees for their service, and congratulations. Best
of luck on their next adventures. All those in favor of approving the personnel report, signify by saying
aye. Aye. Against, say no. Any abstentions? The motion carries. We'll move on to the contracts. Do I
have a motion to approve the contracts and quote as presented?
second. It's been moved by Ron seconded by Aaron Wyatt that we approve the contracts and quote as presented.
Mr. Erwin. Thank you. All the contracts have been reviewed through our process and they're set for your
approval. There are two that I feel like are more noteworthy tonight that I wanted to call attention
to. One is an MOU between MCCSC and ID Tech to collaborate to provide dual enrollment courses.
The MOU allows direct billing to MCCSE for any fees approved for dual enrollment courses taken through
Ivy Tech and all costs are paid for through the 2023 referendum fund. So again, just a continued thank
you for that partnership with our community to provide that resource to our students. The second is
the agreement with Apple. This is for device replacement for teachers. This is a planned expense to
the 2025 lease rental bond.
as noted in the board packet. So with that, I recommend all contracts and quotes as presented.
Thank you, Mr. Irwin. Are there any comments from the board? All those in favor of approving the contracts
and quotes signify by saying aye. Aye. Against, say no. Any abstentions? The motion carries.
Next for our consideration is the early childhood initiatives, resolution 2026-05 and the provider agreement.
Do I have a motion to adopt resolution 2026-05 and approve the provider agreement as presented? So moved.
Do I have a second? Second. It's been moved by Ashley and seconded by Tiana that we adopt resolution
2026-05 and approve the provider agreement as presented.
Ms. Harmon. Thank you. It is recommended that the board adopt Resolution 2026-05, the Early Child Initiative
and the Provider Agreement as presented in your board packet. I so recommend. Any comments from the
board? All those in favor of adopting Resolution 2026-05 and approving the Provider Agreement signify
by saying aye.
Aye. Against, say no. Any abstentions? The motion carries. Next, we will consider approval to renew
the Advanced Placement Course African-American Studies. Do I have a motion for approval to renew the
Advanced Placement Course as presented? Second.
It's been moved by Erin Wyatt and seconded by April that we renew the advanced placement course
African-American studies as presented. Ms. Harmon. Thank you again. Background, the Indiana Department
of Education allows schools to offer courses that are not included on the state approved course list
by applying for a non-standard course waiver. The Board of School Trustees approved Bloomington High
School North's request for a pilot program for offering AP African-American studies in October of 2023.
Bloomington North applied and received a non-standard course waiver to offer this AP course. The course
is now up for renewal. Tonight, Bloomington High School North seeks to renew AP African-American studies
with the Indiana Department of Education as part of its elective social studies curriculum. This course
is well received by students and provides meaningful opportunities to deepen their knowledge, understanding,
and perspective. It is recommended that the board approve Bloomington High School North's request to
renew and submit the required non-standard course waiver to the Indiana Department of Education
for the continued offering of AP African-American studies at Bloomington High School North for the 27-28
school year, the 28-29, and the 29-30 school years. I so recommend. Are there any comments from the
board? Do we have any indication of whether this will be accepted or denied? We do not have any indication.
But we anticipate approval. We're hopeful for approval. OK, great. I understand this is a popular course,
and I'm glad that we can continue to offer it. Thank you, Ms. Harmon. All those in favor of approving
the renewal of the Advanced Placement Course African-American Studies signify by saying aye. Aye.
Any against, say no. Abstentions. The motion carries.
Tonight's first presentation is a human resources update. Dr. Henderson. Good evening again. Thank you,
President Cooperman, Dr. Winston, members of the Board of School Trustees. This evening, I would like
to take the opportunity to talk a little bit about how we sustain academic excellence in the MCCSC.
Specifically, we're going to discuss staffing principles, which are student-centered principles that support
our continual staffing evaluation, as well as speak to you a little bit about class size ratios as evidence
of sustaining academic excellence during our two year strategy to achieve financial balance and sustain
excellence, which you'll hear a little bit more about this evening from Dr Winston and Mr Erwin. I want
to emphasize that we are confident in implementing our strategy while upholding high quality education
across MCC SC schools.
What I'll present here this evening are two things, evidence of how we are and how we will continue
to uphold that high quality education. First, I'll share an overview of our corporation staffing principles
that we use in our continual evaluation of staffing levels. We apply these principles consistently to
every staffing decision that we make to prioritize classroom instruction and sustain academic excellence
across the school corporation.
Then I'll share evidence of how we have maintained and will continue to maintain academic excellence
by maintaining class size ratios that are at or below board approved levels. First of all, our staffing
principles. Just a little introduction to this. As we continually evaluate enrollment funding and expenses,
the principles I'll share with you here this evening help us ensure that staffing decisions are made
within a clear and consistent framework
are thoughtfully considered and aligned to our instructional and operational priorities and minimize
classroom impacts wherever possible. Grounding our decisions in these principles strengthens our ability
to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars while maintaining excellence throughout the corporation. We
consistently apply five staffing principles.
They are student-centered, enrollment aligned, position-based, corporation-wide perspective, and fiscal
sustainability. We're going to discuss each one in more detail on the following slides. Student-centered.
Staffing decisions are based on the potential impact on students and families as they regulate both
through academic outcomes
student experience, as well as access to essential supports. This principle matters because it keeps
staffing focused on why the work exists, student learning, and well-being, rather than any existing
internal preferences, legacy programs, or organizational convenience. When we look at the principle
of enrollment aligned, staffing levels and positions are aligned to current
and projected enrollment, measurable student and operational needs, and fair, consistent metrics that
account for contextual complexity. This matters because aligning staffing to enrollment and clearly
defined needs ensures equity, transparency, and compliance while strengthening trust in how decisions
are made. Position-based. Our positions are designed and allocated
based on the work that must be accomplished to meet both instructional and operational goals. This enables
the district to adapt to changing needs, avoid staffing inertia, where organizational structures remain
in place because they've existed historically rather than because they are aligned to current needs,
and build roles that deliver value where the work occurs. Corporation-wide perspective.
Staffing decisions consider impacts across the entire corporation and prioritize solutions that address
needs to promote both organizational health and sustainability. This approach promotes fairness, consistency,
efficiency, and helps ensure that staffing decisions do not solve one problem while creating another
elsewhere in the corporation. And fiscal sustainability.
Staffing commitments must be fiscally sustainable over time. They must align with instructional and
operational priorities, and they must serve the needs of our community as well as demonstrate added
value. This ensures that staffing decisions can be maintained beyond a single budget cycle, do not rely
on one-time funding, and support the long-term stability and effectiveness of our organization. So those
Five principles are constantly referenced every time we make a decision about a position in the organization,
regardless of department. And we consistently apply those across all of those conversations. Next, I
want to take a little time to look more specifically at class sizes. I'll start with a recap of some
of the previously presented data, provide some comparative statistics,
and then look specifically at elementary and secondary class sizes. You'll recall at the October 28th,
2025 board meeting, this statistic was shared and it's utilized by the Department of Education across
the state. And as in the past, I want to point out that this statistic is showing the number of students
who certificated staff, and that includes all certified staff, counselors, social workers, administrators.
The statistic is not intended to depict class sizes. It's merely a measure of the number of certificated
staff to the number of students that we serve. In comparison, when you look across the surrounding area,
as well as school corporations that are similar in size to MCCSE, we happen to be the lowest in that ratio.
Fiscally, that's not good. The lower it is, the lower that number is, the more money we are spending
per student. So in the previous slide, you saw a number of 13.4. That is this year's self-calculated
statistic after position control. You'll notice that that 13.4
is still lower than the surrounding schools and similar sized schools. So in this slide we're providing
you with comparative data from the DOE from the 2024-2025 school year, which is the most recent data
that's available on the DOE website. At that time, prior to our
two-year strategy being initiated to bring fiscal balance to the organization, we were at 12.6. So that
number was trending in the wrong direction for fiscal sustainability. So I've mentioned before that
the Human Resources Department monitors enrollment counts on a regular basis, especially during the
first few weeks of each school year and at the start of new semesters,
when transitions are most likely for families. Members of the human resources team, curriculum, instruction
and assessment team conducted physical counts in a variety of schools to verify class sizes. And we
also hold weekly meetings with our directors of special education, which include reviews of caseloads,
class sizes, current evaluations and pending enrollments. So on this slide, I want to focus
your attention by the use of some pop-up boxes that will appear on the screen as I speak to specific
items. This slide contains a lot of data, and there are three distinct points at which this data was
gathered. Those correspond at the top there. You'll see the red box that just popped up. The October
1st, 2024 ADM date, the October 1st, 2025 ADM date, and the February 2nd, 2026 ADM date.
Inside this red box you will notice the average size of our pre-k classrooms by building across our
elementary schools. I only brought the red box up on the left hand chart but the column is the same
on all three charts just at the different dates I mentioned just a moment ago.
The next red box that you see shows the average, or the range, sorry, the range of class sizes at the
K-2 grade band. And the reason why K-2 was chosen was specifically because of the configuration
of Rogers-Benford. Rogers is a K-2 building, Benford is a three through six building, so we wanted to
be able to compare across all buildings like data.
We would typically refer to primary grades as K to three and upper elementary is four to six. But given
the configuration that we have at Rogers Benford, it was divided in this way. So you're comparing apples
to apples. So as you look down that column, you will see the ranges of class sizes that exist in that
particular grade band in each school. And that is consistent.
Again, across all three of those tables there, depending upon the dates. The next column will show you
the range of grades three through six in those buildings. And the next column will show you the average
class size, K to six. Pre-K has been taken out of that. And that average across class sizes
or across K-6 is looking at every class in that building and creating the average. And so you'll notice
next to the school name in parentheses a number. That number represents the number of K-6 regular classrooms
that were in that building at the time of this calculation. So you'll notice
If you look at the October 1st, 2024 ADM date, that chart there on the left, Arlington had 14 K-6 classrooms
at that time. If you look at the next table over staying on the Arlington line, on the October 1st,
2025 ADM date, they had 12 K-6 classrooms. And then if you look at the February 2nd, 2026 ADM date,
you'll see that they still have 12 K-6
regular classrooms. So that will show you the number of classrooms that factor into the average calculation.
The last thing I'd like to draw your attention to is the corporation average for elementary classes
K-6 found at the bottom of that average K-6 column. It's important to point out that that is not an
average of the averages. That is taking every K-6 classroom
and calculating the average based on class size. So it's not diluted by taking the average of averages.
So the next thing I would like to do is look at this data in a slightly different way. This is, again,
looking at those same ADM count dates. And you'll notice that the ADM
K-6, the number is included there below those dates. So on October 1st, 2024, K-6 ADM count was 5,056
students. On October 1st, 2025, it was 4,942 students. And on February 2nd, it was 4,932 students. Located
in this column, you'll find the board approved
class size average ratio for a particular grade band. In the next three columns, again, I'm only highlighting
the first column, but the data is the same in the next two columns, you will see the range, the class
size range for that particular grade band, and you will then see in parentheses the average size.
that particular grade band across the district. Again that is not averages of averages that's looking
at every pre-k class, every kindergarten class, every first grade class to get that average. Next down
at the bottom you will see that 96% of all classrooms on October 1st 2024 were at or below
board approved average ratios. We know that we have outliers. We have a lot of buildings, we have a
lot of varying enrollment, and sometimes you will have a large grade of kids matriculate through a building
where there aren't a lot of classrooms in a building. The larger the building and the more classrooms
that you have that serve a specific grade, the easier it is to spread students out and the less likely
you are to have
a split grade classroom. So you can see that October 1st of 2025, 82% of our classrooms were at or below
board approved averages. Again, there are some outliers. And then in February of 2026, 84% were at or
below board approved averages when you look at individual classrooms. If you notice, looking at the
average across the corporation,
We are below the average board approved class size ratio at every grade level when you look
at the corporation as a whole. Again, we recognize there are outliers, there are unique situations in
buildings that create those situations where a large class might be matriculating through a small building.
Good question. When were those ratios
believe they date back to 2000 and 2015 slice this data a different way let's do some comparison between
straight grade classrooms at the elementary and multi-grade classrooms at the elementary and look where
we stand across the top you will see there were 21
Pre-K classrooms across the corporation. 31 kindergarten classrooms across the corporation,
straight grade. And by straight grade, I mean the only grade level of student in that classroom would
it be a kindergarten student. So the next row down, you'll see the board approved average ratio for
that particular grade. You will then see
the current average by that grade level across the corporation as a whole. And then you can see the
percentage of classrooms that are at or below the board approved class size ratio. And finally, you
will see the range of varying class sizes across the corporation at those particular grade bands.
I'll point out to you that if you look at the first grade column you will notice the corporation average
matches the board approved average ratio but we have some outliers. We have a class as small as 15 and
a class as high as 25. So that's just a little bit of
insight into how you look at this particular data and how it compares to the board approved average
class size ratios. So when you look across the corporation as a whole 84 percent of all pre-k to 6 classrooms
are at or below board approved ratios. Next let's take a little look at split grade classrooms. It's
important to note that we don't have nearly as many
split grade classrooms as we do straight grade classrooms across the corporation. And again split grade
classrooms occur likely when you have a small class size in a particular grade level or an odd break
in class sizes at a particular grade level where a grade band is then combined to create a classroom
that is closer to the average. So
Again, when we look at the class size board approved average ratio, I am looking at the lowest grade
in that band. So when you look at kindergarten through one split classroom, I'm citing the kindergarten
board approved ratio, not the first grade board approved ratio. Again, you'll notice, as I said before,
there are very few of these.
If you have any of them that are above the board approved ratio, average ratio, it has a dramatic impact
on that percentage number that you'll see below. There's one K-1 multigrade classroom in the corporation
that has 24 students in it. So 0% of our K-1 splits
are at or below the board approved ratio because it has three more students than a regular kindergarten
class. And you can see the percent at or below across the board there. Down at the bottom, you can see
the range in those multi-grade classrooms.
and 83% of all multi-grade classrooms are at or below board approved ratios. Let's move on to secondary
and focus specifically on middle school at the moment. As you all are well aware, middle schools and
high schools are not structured the same way that elementary schools are. And so we look at averages
by department, class size averages,
by department. So I didn't have any pop-out boxes on this particular slide because there's much less
data there, and it's a whole lot easier to digest. This is looking at current data, the February data
at secondary schools. So you'll notice that fine and performing arts, again, middle school board approved
ratios are 1 to 30.
Fine and Performing Arts, you'll see across the three middle schools. Bachelor is sitting at 30, Jackson
Creek at 29, and Tri-North is sitting at 22, with the all middle school average at 27. You'll notice
that all of these are at or below the board approved average ratio except for
a few at Jackson Creek that are at 33. It's also important to point out that just like we have in the
middle school or in elementary schools, we have at the middle schools and high school outliers, things
that impact the average in different ways. For example, if you think about
band, choir, orchestra, and PE classes, they typically contain more than 30 students in them. And that
is appropriate for those class sizes. Based on getting a full ensemble of students together in a band
to be able to practice and rehearse together, you typically have more than 30 students in a band.
So again, we know there are outliers, but we look at the averages across departments.
as the way in which we we judge that. Let's move on to the high schools and again broken down in the
same way by departments. All four of our high schools are represented there. Bloomington Graduation
School, the Academy, Bloomington High School North and Bloomington High School South as well as
calculations for all four of the high schools, what the averages factor out to be if you combine all
of them. And then if you separate out Bloomington High School North and Bloomington High School South
as the comprehensive large high schools, we have a one to 30 ratio at those large comprehensive high
schools. At the Academy we have a 25 to one ratio and at BGS we have a 15 to one ratio.
75% of all classrooms at the secondary level are at or below board approved average ratios in the 25-26
school year in our February data. Again, those same comments about outliers for large class sizes in
band, choir, orchestra, some of those large ensembles, PE classes, those kinds of things. Large group
study halls.
might impact that if they're coded as other in skyward in that other category down at the bottom. If
you take another look at this data and just look at the averages across secondary combining both high
school and middle school averages, um, you can see that comparative data there in
this case you'll notice that those averages are at or below the board approved ratios for the secondary
level across the board when you look at at all departments. Next let's take a look at our special education
caseloads and as I mentioned before there are weekly meetings that are conducted between the human resources
department and the directors of special education where we monitor this data
in an ongoing manner because as you all are aware, students are tested, identified, and enter into service
in special education throughout the year. And so we constantly monitor this. 93% of our caseloads are
at or below departmental guidelines. We divided this out by mild intervention and intense intervention.
And if you look on the slide inside the red box that just popped up,
When we look at pre K to six elementary, our guidelines are our departmental guidelines that were established
through discussion with our teachers association. Um, those guidelines are 20 to 25 pre K to six is
what we try to stay within. There are 33 teachers who operate within the pre K to six mild intervention
range across the corporation.
serving those students and their average caseload is 20 and 88 percent of all pre-k to 6 caseloads are
at or below guidelines and the largest pre-k to 6 caseload is 28 just for your information. When you
look at secondary mild intervention
There are 33 teachers serving students in grades 7 through 12 plus. The guidelines are established at
25 to 30, with an average caseload of 22, with 94% of those caseloads being at or below guidelines.
And the largest caseload is 32, so two above. And again, just a reminder that students are added to
special education services throughout the school year.
at various times, depending upon their evaluation cycle. If we move over into intense intervention at
pre-K through 6, there are 12 teachers that serve the needs of students in this category. And our guidelines
have been established at 8 to 12 for the caseload. The average caseload is 10, with 92% of caseloads
being at or below guidelines. And the largest PK to 6 intense intervention caseload
is 13. Finally, if we look at secondary intense intervention classrooms, there are eight teachers that
serve the needs of this program. Guidelines are established at 10 to 14. The average caseload is 11.
And 100% of those caseloads are at or below guidelines, with the largest caseload also being 13.
So in summary here this evening, the information that I shared with you are just a few measures of how
we are prioritizing educational quality in our schools as we work our way through our two-year strategy
to bring fiscal balance and sustain academic excellence here in the MCCSC. As you've seen, the majority
of class sizes throughout our corporation, K to 12, are at or below board approved student to teacher
average ratios.
Again, 84% of pre-K to 6 classrooms, 83% of multi-grade classrooms, 75% of secondary classrooms are
adderable or board approved ratios. And again, just a reminder that we do recognize there are outliers
and those particularly large classrooms and band, choir, orchestra, physical education. Since 2019,
the average student to certificated staff ratio in grades K through 12 is increased by less than one student.
Again, that's certificated staff to student. Our team continually examines this data and will continue
to be vigilant about class size if MCCSC moves forward in its two-year strategy to achieve financial
balance. Also, elementary average class size has increased by only one student from the fall of 2024
to the spring of 2026. As the school corporation continuously evaluates staffing at all times throughout
the year, our staffing principles that I covered at the beginning of this presentation provide a clear
and consistent framework that ensures all of our decisions are principle aligned and sustain academic
excellence in our school. This is just one measure of how we sustain that academic excellence. And you'll
hear more from Dr. Winston in her two year strategy update.
Thank you for the opportunity to present this data to you this evening. Thank you, Dr. Henderson. Are
there any comments from the board? Yeah. So in some of the buildings, as we look at elementary school
numbers, some of them have some huge deltas, like from 17 to 32.
Some of them, the top number was significantly smaller than other buildings where that top number was
much larger. Is that something that is being discussed through the redistricting study as well to balance
that population per building? Well, I certainly don't want to speak for Dr. Dowling and Dr. Garman-McLean
with regard to
a report that you will be receiving in the not too distant future with regard to the redistricting study
commission. But I will say that part of what drove us in that direction and the board to ask for us
to conduct that study had to do with the efficiency of use of buildings in the corporation. And so we
are a very large geographic size as a school corporation with a large number of
schools with a large variation in the population of enrollment in those schools. And as I mentioned
earlier, the larger the building, the more efficient you can be. You gain economy of scale, so to speak.
And so you experience less range and less impact
when there are fluctuations in a particular grade level in terms of the number of kids that are enrolled
in a building at a particular time. Sure. And we also can account for population density shifts in catchment
zones based on property development. Correct. Yeah. OK. Not without changing the catchment zone. Exactly.
Yeah. Discussed.
Dr. Henderson, for our classrooms where many students are attending from out of the catchment zone,
like the ELPS program at Fairview or the multi-age classroom at Templeton, were those classrooms included
in the numbers that we saw? Yes, they are. OK, thank you. And when class sizes get larger, there are
aids added to those classrooms, correct, at certain levels? At times.
Yes. Last call for comments from the board. When there is a classroom that's identified that is potentially
on the larger side, is that remediated or how is that handled?
It depends on the particular building and the circumstances surrounding the needs in that classroom.
As you know, there are oftentimes push-in aids from special education department that are in classrooms
to provide additional supports, as well as pull-outs that occur in those classrooms for individual
remediation needs of students. So many times,
you will find when you walk into a classroom, as we did when we conducted our checks around the district,
the teacher would be quick to say, not all of my students are in here. Some of them are out in a reading
group or some of them are getting math intervention. So that class size that exists there doesn't necessarily
mean that that number of students are in that room all day.
there are pullout programs that provide additional supports to students academically that occur as well.
Thank you. President Kuperman, I just want to take a moment to give kudos to Dr. Henderson and the HR
team for the due diligence, quite frankly, that they've taken in monitoring this data. They've done
so very deliberately, very intentionally, and hopefully it is recognized that this is a priority for us
to make sure that we are managing class sizes appropriately. We recognize that with the changes that
are happening economically throughout the state and within our community, it certainly is having an
impact on us, which is why we're monitoring it as closely. So I just want to say thank you very much
to Dr. Henderson and our entire executive team for their very, very difficult and painstaking work to
provide you with the level of detailed analysis that you received this evening.
Rest assured that he has gone over all of those numbers with a fine-tooth comb multiple times.
So thank you. Very well done. I would agree with that. I wanted to ask a question to show I was paying
attention, but every time I thought of one, you answered it on the next slide. So it was very thorough.
Thank you so much for that. You're welcome. Any last-minute questions? Thank you, Dr. Henderson.
Next is the quarterly two-year strategy to sustaining excellence and financial transparency. Dr. Winston.
Thank you, President Cooperman. So exactly 12 months ago, the Board of School Trustees and I announced
our two-year strategy to achieve fiscal balance. Part of that strategy included our public commitment
to provide quarterly updates and financial transparency regarding our efforts.
The two board priorities as a reminder to our audience are one, to achieve financial balance, and two,
to sustain academic excellence. Our goals for tonight's presentation are to provide our fiscal update
and also to announce the kickoff of our two new bond-funded projects. Mr. Irwin and I have a lot of
very valuable information to share with you, and I want you to know that the key word is a lot, but
I want you to know that it's really, really important that you
capture this information and that you begin to connect the dots as we are as well. As a friendly reminder
on our timeline here, I would like just to take a few minutes to remind everyone of our journey toward
achieving balance. When I took over as interim superintendent in July 2024, although it feels like 10
years ago, just a year, 18 months ago, the board of school trustees tasked me with taking a comprehensive look
at corporation finances for the purposes of making informed decisions that would ultimately guide our
fiscal sustainability. My first action was to hire an external firm, Policy Analytics, to assist our
team. The results of our financial forecast review indicated that we needed to reduce our operational
expenses and to live within our means amidst declining student enrollment and declining revenue.
As a result, we embarked on our two-year strategy in February of 2025.
and we unveiled that during our state of the schools address that year. A few short months later, the
Indiana legislature, as you can see here with the yellow arrow, passed Senate Enrolled Act 1, which
was designed to provide property tax relief to homeowners. What we know now is that SEA 1 significantly
reduces needed property tax revenue for numerous government entities, including public libraries, schools,
and local government. Last fall, I believe it was in October of 2025, you heard a very detailed analysis
of exactly how this piece of legislation is going to impact and is impacting our corporation. Consistent
with our promise to the community, we have continued to provide quarterly updates on our finances, and
we are eager to do so this evening. The next three slides are included to assist everyone that is listening
to connect the dots at the state level and locally. SEA 1, the 2025 property tax relief legislation
is impacting local governments and schools statewide. As we look across the state, we are beginning
to see and hear about numerous examples of budget cuts and reductions across all forms of government.
On this slide, you'll see a few recent announcements that came out from Elkhart Community Schools,
They've been talking about making budgetary cuts, specifically as a result of SEA 1. Two weeks ago,
Noblesville Schools communicated that they are going to have to make staffing reductions due to the
multi-million dollar deficit caused by SEA 1. Crown Point Schools is cutting job positions and they
are making reductions to their birth to school program.
North Allen County Schools is also making reductions. So I think it's important to note I only pulled
out four examples, but there are many more than four examples across the state of Indiana where school
corporations are having to make some very difficult choices. The fact of the matter is that SCA 1 is
impacting everyone. In many ways, MCCSC has been ahead of the curve because we've been discussing these
potential impacts for several months now.
In spite of these headwinds, our team continues to keep our efforts focused on making sure that our
decisions are good for children, fiscally responsible, and ultimately sustainable. We will all have
to make very tough choices in today's financial climate. What is true, however, is our ongoing commitment
to maintain the excellence in our schools that our children deserve. What you see here locally
is that there are several examples of local government decisions regarding SCA-1 and the very real fiscal
impacts. You probably are familiar with the fact that our local libraries have had to make changes directly
as a result of the reduction in revenue for them as a result of SCA-1, and so they've had to reduce
in many ways, but one of the ways that they've reduced is to reduce their hours of availability.
their operating hours. You probably know that we have nearby towns and townships. Ellisville and Richland
township are having conversations about consolidation. That's directly in response to SCA 1. And then
our local city of Bloomington city council is looking at the kinds of budgetary changes that they're
going to have to make. So I think it's just important to connect these dots in a very explicit manner.
The fiscal climate that we are in requires that we change our practices and that we also tighten our
belts, which we have been very responsible in doing. The impacts of SEA 1 are real, and we cannot escape
the types of changes that are now required. In many ways, property tax relief means changing what we
are accustomed to and how services are provided throughout our communities. Recently, the Indiana Business Review
from the Kelly School of Business published their annual forecast for 2026. Their findings revealed
significant economic stress for our community. Specifically, this report noted comparatively weak growth
in economic activity in Bloomington since before the pandemic. This is evidenced by a number of key
indicators. On the left-hand side, you'll see a 4.4% GDP growth in Bloomington,
compared to 11.2% growth statewide during the same time period. In the middle, you'll notice that local
wages here in Bloomington have gone down by 6.5%, while the statewide wages have increased by 5.1%.
And not surprisingly, housing affordability. A home in Bloomington is approximately 18.1% higher than
the state average. Those numbers are real.
And those numbers certainly impact what happens within our community and within our schools. Weak economic
performance made Bloomington a negative outlier in a state that has recently beat the nation in wage
and real GDP growth. Despite the challenging economic environment for higher education, Bloomington
unemployment fell from 3.9% to 3.4% between August 2024 and August 2025. And we all know
the hits that have been experienced by Indiana University by more than $100 million reduction, as well
as Purdue. And if you look at the economic realities of those two communities, you'll see some stark
similarities. It's important to note that, and you may be asking, why does this matter and what does
this mean for our schools? Well, we just looked at Bloomington's economic
picture in comparison to the state on a couple of key lagging indicators. Here's why it matters. Because
when families struggle with low wages and high housing costs, some of them leave. And in Indiana, when
students leave, funding follows them out the door. That's why financial discipline is not an option
right now. It is essential. We have to be honest about the reality that we're facing.
Fewer students, less state funding, and more uncertainty from the state and federal government. Every
dollar has to be managed wisely, and our staffing and our spending have to align with the number of
students that we actually serve today. But here's what's just as important, and I don't want anyone
to miss this part. We will not cut our way to a brighter future. The very things that make families
choose MCCSC
our rich arts programs our numerous career pathways our early learning and pre-k programs our AP and
accelerated course offerings our extracurriculars and our very talented teachers and our dedicated support
staff. Those are the things that we must protect. Our schools are not just responding to this economy.
We can help strengthen it. Strong communities build strong schools. Great schools attract families. Families.
grow communities. Our schools are a vital part of the economic engine of our community. That's the role
we play. That's the role we want to play. And that's exactly what our two year strategy is designed
to do. To balance our finances so that we can sustain excellent schools for the future. We
will be responsible with what we have and keep investing in what makes MCCSC worth choosing. We're not
just balancing a budget.
we're building a future. And now I'm happy to turn it over to Matt Irwin, our chief financial officer,
to show you exactly how we are progressing on our two year strategy before I talk to you a little bit
more about our future. Thank you, Dr. Winston. I think you'll be able to click through for me as we
go through this. This is the third time that I've been able to give this financial transparency report.
Um, and again, I'm excited to see her before you and continue to update you in the public on where we're at.
This first slide builds off some of the things that Dr. Henderson and Dr. Winston are talking about
as it relates to our local demographics and our changes in enrollment and paying attention to how schools
are funded. And our number one source of funding is based on student enrollment. So what this graph
is showing you is the difference in funding because of enrollment loss.
So what it looks back to is a starting point of our October count in 2019, which was at a high watermark
of about 10,897 students. And over the course of time, our student enrollment has declined as we talk
about some of the various demographic factors and things going on around the state that ultimately obviously
affect the schools as well. And so if all else stayed the same,
and enrollment had not dropped, we would have collected almost $31 million more in basic tuition support.
But as Dr. Winston described, the funding follows the student. And so again, student enrollment is our
number one source of funding as a public school corporation. And so as student enrollment shifts, we
have to shift as well. And so when you think about some of the changes
that we've been making, the adaptations that we've been making to the way that we operate and the way
that we staff our buildings. We obviously are keeping those principles at the forefront. But when our
number one source of funding continues to change, we need to change and adapt with it. So again, that's
what this slide points to. And again, it kind of leads in as you go to the next slide. This is the slide
that you've seen many times.
And the way that I've set this up is that we've continued to talk about where we started from when we
were talking about the implementation of the two year strategy to achieve balance, right? As we didn't
make shifts in staffing and as we're making shifts now, if we didn't make adjustments, here's what we
were looking at. It wasn't an option. And so as we get out to 2028,
What you see at the top or the bottom of those individual bar graphs are the cumulative totals, positive
or negative, what was projected to happen as we move forward if we did not make any changes. And that
simply was not an option. And so at the bottom there at 2028, it's over a $30 million deficit in our
three largest funds. So with that, we move forward. Again, like I said, I like to remind us that's where
we started.
The next piece that I've continued to try to remind you of, this is an ever-changing picture. We are
continuing to keep our finger on the pulse of how things are ebbing and flowing, whether that's locally,
demographically, what it is that we expect future things to happen or the implications of legislation,
projections of enrollment, all of those things. And so when I show the next chart that shows our progress
in balance,
It reflects some of these things that I think are important to keep at the forefront. One, actual revenue
and expenses through January 31st of 2026. Certification of our February 2026 student count. Again,
our basic grant, our student enrollment is measured twice a year by the state. The second time for the
school year was this February, and so we've certified that count, which was down approximately 108 students.
We add an update to our special education grant. Within our tuition support, there are several grants,
different pieces that are a part that make up our tuition support. One of those is our special education
grant where we receive funding based on the pupils that we have as with special needs and the funding
category of which those needs fall into. So our special education student count went up from this past
December, from the December in 2024.
the funding in that specific part of our tuition support will go up. But what we recognize with our
February count of overall student count going down, that they will then reconcile that back as well.
So that's folded into these next projections. And again, knowing the demographics and what it is that's
projected for our local area and the expectations for student enrollment going forward. One of the other
things that we got notice of within the last couple of weeks is that we got notified by the Indiana State
pension retirement system was that our employer contributions towards the teacher retirement fund were
going up another one percent starting in twenty twenty seven. So in twenty twenty six we were notified
that it was going to go up zero point six percent and then now we've been notified in twenty twenty
seven it's going to go up another one percent. So in terms of just giving you a feel for what that means
for us another one percent is approximately six hundred thousand dollars of extra expense
just because they had raised that up next to continue to fund the teacher retirement fund. So that's
something that we've been notified of and we've layered into projections going forward. We continue
to talk about one-time funds because it's important that we don't let those confuse us about the path
that we're on and whether or not we are finding balance. And so we have shown the planned input of the
taxable GO and
to support fund balances in the operations fund. We've included that in there because we know it's a
one-time fund that we've actually received. And we'll talk a little bit more about one-time funds again
later on in my present part of the presentation. We continue to show and blend into this what we expect
to be the effects of SCA-1 based on the policy analytics report that you guys saw that broader update
on back in October. And then again, we are continuing
uh to assess progress towards financial balance simply by we are flatlining expenses past 2026 simply
because if if they're flatlined and we aren't showing balance obviously if i show increasing expenses
we're not going to show balance so we we're working towards that that point but i continue to make that
point as it provides context to the numbers that you see in the next graph so it could go forward what
i put with this graph
And this is laid out just like the other one. You have the individual respective fund balances inside
of the bar. You have the cumulative total of those three specific funds at the top of the bar is significant
progress. This is a much different picture as then what relates to the first graph that you saw. It's
significant progress 12 months into a 24 month strategy. And balance is not yet achieved, but we are
headed in the right direction.
We're making the right decisions. We're asking the right questions as we continue to keep at the forefront
the priorities that we continue to talk about here tonight. The next takeaway as you look at this is
that our operations fund is moving in the right direction long term. In the short term, we still project
to eat into cash this year as we're currently set up. But as you look in the long term, if we have the
ability to continue
with the MLGQ growth that they typically give us, and we look at how we are using the runway of one-time
funds, we are moving in the right direction. And let me talk about that a little bit more specifically,
because that part can be confusing when you look at this graph. The yellow and the red together make
the operations fund. But I separated out into the red one-time funds, because it's important to understand
what that fund would look like without those one-time funds.
And as you move forward into the upcoming years, the red in the previous bar is built into the yellow.
So I think it's important to make note of that, but what's encouraging is that you see that yellow portion
of the operations fund continuing to grow, which again is why I said we're moving in the right direction
long-term. The gray at the top is our referendum. We know that as SCA-1 continues
to fold in over the coming years of its effects that if our spend level and trajectory stays the same,
we will start to eat into larger and larger amounts of cash in the referendum fund simply because it
will produce less dollars. That same voter approved rate produces less dollars when net assessed value
is lowered. And then the education fund there at the bottom is fairly stagnant. It's moving.
a little bit in the right direction, but it's fairly stagnant in this picture. Again, this is a much
better picture than what we saw there at the beginning. We are making significant progress and we're
one year in to a two-year strategy to achieve balance. We're making great strides. Wanted to talk a
little bit more about some important impacts as it relates to SCA-1 and then some of that strategic
management as we continue to talk about one-time funds.
We know through that policy analytics report that we are expecting to see funding reductions in totality
across the implementation of SAI-1 of approximately $30 million. When we look at just 2026, one of the
primary drivers of what it is that we feel this year is the unfunded credit losses. That's the supplemental
deduction that property taxpayers will receive. And right now, the way that it's current legislatively
written, it would be spread across the debt service and operations fund. We know that right now the
estimate to be about $2 million loss off of our levy. Right now, currently in legislation, they are
proposing that they would move all of that loss to the operations fund, which would protect our debt
service fund so that we would, uh, it doesn't impair school corporations future ability to pay debt
obligations, which means they would move $2 million loss to our operations fund.
And with that happening, we would receive less property tax dollars in our operations fund in 2026 than
what we received in 2025. One-time funds. Effective uses, we talked about this. What they're allowing
us to do, and I showed this in the previous graph, it's allowing us that longer runway to make changes
to the way that we operate, to do it in a balanced,
and concerted effort over time. And once we achieve balance, what one-time funds can help us do is put
the appropriate long-term safety net as far as fund balances in place so that when the next legislative
change as enrollment changes, as some of these things go on, we have the necessary cash balance on hand
to not only handle the ebbs and flows of our revenue and expenses in any given fund,
but the various changes that we experience. And that's important. We and the way that we operate, we
are a huge driver in what makes this community successful. And it's important that we are operating
in a healthy place because we take care of a lot of students and we employ a lot of staff. And so we
need to make sure that we're positioned in a place of strength. And so that's another way that we could
use one time funds is to put our balances in a healthy place
so that once it's achieved and as we move forward, that takes care of one of the other pieces that we
know is essential to financial strength. And then again, account for one-time expenses. And the ineffective
use that I listed, that's pretty self-explanatory, right? The example that I used before, I guess it's
probably timely now when you talk about tax return time, as I said, hey, I get a tax check,
one-time funds, I really want this vehicle,
I know that with this one-time funds, it's going to help me get the vehicle out the door. I'm a little
unsure if I'm going to be able to continue to make the payments. And that's not necessarily how we want
to do business. And so we are being cognizant of making sure that we're maximizing the impact of one-time
funds without putting us at risk of putting ourselves in a position that we're navigating out of now.
And then I provided those same examples that I put in different board meetings. Some of those. And again,
we're not we're not counting on the one time funds or we're not showing them in projections until we
receive them. Because if we if we think that we're going to receive them and we make plans off of it
and we go and spend dollars. And then turn around and don't receive those that would be problematic.
So for example, the solar rebates, we know that we've taken all the necessary steps to receive those
solar rebates as it relates to some energy efficiency projects that we've undertaken that would make
us eligible for those rebates through the IRS. They've not come through yet. And so we're continuing
to wait on that. So we, again, don't count on those things until we know that we've received them so
that we're continuing to operate from a place of consistency and strength. So with that,
I believe that is my last slide there, and I will turn that back over to Dr. Winston. She talks about
how we're continuing to sustain excellence amidst the challenges that we're facing. Thank you, Mr. Irwin.
The second board priority that I spoke about earlier was sustaining excellence, sustaining academic
excellence. That's what we focus on every day. Our corporation has numerous examples of student excellence
outcomes. You saw many of those students earlier this evening
Assistant Superintendent Harmon introduced several of our students. Sustaining academic excellence means
we will continue to strengthen our operational efficiencies, continuing to coordinate our purchases
corporation-wide, ensuring that we are getting our best deals possible, taking a close look at the tools
and services, and paying very close to the subscriptions that we have, particularly in the areas of software.
as just one example. If you think about your own household, Matt and I kind of like to use real examples.
Think about your own household when your money gets tight. Your children still get what they need, right?
But you get smarter about how you spend. Maybe you start buying in bulk. Maybe you sit down and take
a hard look at all those monthly subscriptions and ask, do we really need Netflix, Hulu, Apple TV,
and Prime? Which ones do we keep?
I don't know, some of us probably need to rethink that, myself included. That's exactly what we're doing
though here at MCCSE. When funding gets tighter, we protect what matters most. And what matters most
is taking care of our children in our classrooms. Earlier this evening, Dr. Henderson talked about several
key principles that guide our decision making. We are living those principles every single day.
So as leaders, we're looking at how we operate behind the scenes
We're continuing to coordinate purchases across the corporation to make sure we get the best deals.
And just like you might audit your family's spending we're making sure every one of our dollars is being
used as efficiently as possible. Every leader in our organization every leader has been tasked with
being more efficient and more disciplined with how they spend taxpayer dollars. We're doing this to
protect your children's experiences in our schools.
These are the kinds of smart behind the scenes decisions that allow us to keep investing where it counts
in our students, in our teachers, and in our classrooms. Sustaining academic excellence. We believe
that it is very doable to achieve fiscal balance while also sustaining academic excellence. The two
do not have to be mutually exclusive. It may mean that we begin to reimagine how we do our work and
how we sustain excellence. It may look different.
Achieving financial balance does not mean scaling back what makes MCCSC exceptional. We will continue
to offer strong STEAM programs, musical, visual, performing arts, extracurriculars, early learning,
global learning, college and career pathways, and a wide variety of academic programs and experiences
that draw families to choose MCCSC. A few minutes ago, you did hear Superintendent Harmon celebrate
many of our students. I didn't mean to repeat that twice. But it was that important. I mean, how excited
were you to see all those children here, right? That's what it's about. So it was worth saying twice.
I meant to say that twice. In addition to the amazing students that we saw this evening, just this past
weekend, Bloomington North placed second and Bloomington South placed third in the Science Olympiad
competition regionals and they're going to state. You heard about that from Ms. Helms. Two of our middle
schools placed high enough to go to state competition as well Jackson Creek and Try North. That kind
of success that we are experiencing is not by chance. It is the result of hard work by awesome teachers
and committed students and we are committed to protecting this type of investment in our students.
We will continue to innovate and offer the kind of school experiences that do attract our families.
When resources are tight, innovation is what will carry us forward. Our team will continue to find new
ways to deliver excellent academic opportunities for our students today and for years to come. Just
a few examples of excellence in action were seen at our recent Student Excellence Awards three weeks ago.
And what you see on this slide here you see three really clear examples. Seeing the success of our students
is the best way to know if we are sustaining diverse student opportunities. On the left you'll see Blake
under music and musical and performing arts. Blake is a talented and creative force at bachelor middle
school. He earned a place in the prestigious junior all state jazz band. I mean really the junior all
state jazz band and he's in middle school.
showcasing exceptional musical ability. Blake also shines as a member of the Bachelor Television BTV,
where he produced a one-minute reel for the Indiana Association of School Principals Real Impact Series
competition. Now, how many of you have presented something for the Indiana Association of School Principals?
And Eric Gilpin may not raise his hand, because he probably has.
But he captured the energy and excitement of bachelor school-wide through a walk-a-thon and a lock-in
fundraiser. So that's Blake on the left. In the middle, we have Peter for extracurriculars, makerspaces.
Peter is a leader in every sense of the word at Tri-North Middle School. He balances rigorous academics,
athletics, Science Olympiad, I'm sure he was there this past weekend, National Junior Honor Society,
and his role as an armor ambassador
with remarkable maturity and poise. As a makerspace teaching assistant, Peter strengthens the learning
environment daily, whether troubleshooting a 3D printer, and how many of you know what a 3D printer
is or what it does? You don't have to raise your hand. Demonstrating techniques, organizing equipment,
or helping classmates one-on-one. And on the right, for STEAM, Nimora.
She is a brilliant student at Templeton Elementary whose talent, humility, and kindness makes her an
exceptional student and leader. She excels across all academic areas with ease and beyond the classroom.
She is active in Girl Scouts. She's in her second year in the MCCSE Strings program. And she is leading
the way as a founding member of Templeton's first ever Robotics Club. These are just three of the many,
many students, almost 100 students who were celebrated,
at our awards ceremony a couple of weeks ago. And we have hundreds more that are just as deserving.
We are also sustaining excellence by the promises that we've made to the community as a result of our
referendum. An important thing you should know is that we are, in fact, following through on all of
those promises.
We have a 2022 referendum that helps pay for teachers, staff, and learning. We also have a 2023 referendum
that expands families access to early learning. As two quick examples that you see on here, more than
500 families are benefiting from high quality preschool and pre-K. That's more than double what we provided
prior to the referendum. We wouldn't have been able to do that prior to the referendum. And school supplies.
Families don't need to buy them. The referendum provides them.
We just opened enrollment for our preschool and our pre-K program, was it last week? And we still have
spaces available so more families can join our preschool and our pre-K programs. 100% of our enrolled
students attend pre-K for free or half price or less for the 25-26 school year. Our three-year-old preschool
program, the majority of our enrolled students, approximately 75%, attend for free this year.
referendum funds will continue to be used in this manner. In spite of the economic challenges that I
highlighted a few minutes ago, it's important for you to note that MCCSE is ahead of the class when
it comes to teacher salaries. The average teaching salary for MCCSE is $69,770,
which is 12% higher than the statewide average. And our minimum starting teacher salary for those coming
right out of college is $57,750, nearly 28% higher. In looking at some of the informal data that we
can put our hands on, it appears as if we are in the top 15% of salaries for all Indiana school corporations
in terms of our starting teacher salaries.
And that's something to be proud of. That's something that we can certainly leverage in the economic
climate and economic reality within our community. When we see that economically, salaries and wages
are going down in Bloomington, then we are certainly at the forefront in terms of our ability to pay
our employees, our teachers, and our support staff better than most.
We are one year into our two year strategy and the results are clear. As you heard from Mr. Irwin a
few moments ago, the future is brighter because of the disciplined approach that we have taken up to
this point in time. We cannot slow down. We need to continue to be disciplined in our approach. In spite
of those successes, our work is not complete. There's a lot more work to be done.
in order for us to achieve the fiscal balance, which is this board's number one priority. There are
numerous headwinds that we must face every day. We do not know what course or direction will be taken
in the area of federal dollars. Those federal dollars are essential for us because they supplement the
types of programs that we provide for our students. But we will continue to monitor state and federal
impacts. We will also continue to identify operational efficiencies that will allow us to work smarter.
And we will continue the practice of aligning our staffing to the moving target of student enrollment,
as Dr. Henderson showed us this evening. We must and we will operate within the dollars that we have.
Last month, we were excited to be able to share with you our new financial portal, Every Dollar, Every
Student. I encourage you to stay updated on our two-year strategy in our financial portal on our corporation website.
This is a place for both information, but we also see this as educational as well, so that everyone
in our community can see how we're spending every dollar on behalf of every student. The second part
of what we wanted to share with you this evening has to do with our bond projects. Tonight marks an
important milestone for our corporation. We are launching our designing and building to sustain excellence projects.
Bond projects investments that protect learning environments steward community resources and position
our corporation for the next generation of students. Transparency is truly not an optional consideration.
It is an expectation and it is a norm for how this board of school trustees and this administrative
team does our work. This evening we will share our first projects. We will explain how bond dollars work.
And we will outline how the board and the public will be kept informed every step of the way. So there
are three goals for what I'm going to share with you over the next few moments to officially launch
our latest bond program to explain how dollars work the bond dollars work and to commit to
ongoing transparency. The bond dollars the purpose of our bond programs is really to make sure that
we are continuing to invest in our schools so that we have the kinds of facilities
21st century classrooms, accessible spaces that make students and families want to attend our schools.
Our bond dollars are restricted by law to only address capital improvements to school facilities and
they are dedicated to the systems and spaces that make teaching and learning possible. This slide is
important because we wanted to make sure that everyone would understand how bond dollars can be used
and how they cannot be used. On the left, you'll see several examples of how bond dollars can be used.
I'm not going to read all of those for you, but you can see that we can utilize them for safety and
security. We can use them for buses, roof repair, HVAC system, that's our heating and cooling systems,
technology enhancements, and so on and so forth. But I think it's equally as important for folks to
know that you may not use bond dollars
for teacher or staff salaries. You may not use them for classrooms, textbooks, educational programs
or daily operating costs. I think it might be helpful for you to understand also how do we select the
projects that are funded by bonds. We select these projects
in a manner that allows us to be responsible stewards of the dollars, that we prioritize safety and
health, and we're looking at long-term sustainability. So those are probably the three biggest areas
that we think about as we try to prioritize what projects are going to happen first, what are the next
projects, so on and so forth. At the end of the day, our goal is to preserve community assets while
also controlling future costs.
Some of the categories I've already mentioned to you deal with transportation, facilities, equipment,
safety and insecurity enhancements, mechanical aspects of our buildings, so on and so forth. Recently,
we've completed a few projects. We recently completed our Bloomington South soccer field back in the
fall. Very excited about that. We also completed the Bloomington South gymnasium seating.
the completion of the Templeton playground with the basketball court and the outdoor learning area.
And we also completed our Clear Creek and Highland Park interior wall covering. So those are just a
few examples of recent projects that were funded by bonds and were important contributions for our school
corporation. It's exciting to be able to share with you some of our newest projects, which will include
a bus canopy and retention pond. And that's going to allow us to
provide appropriate charging areas for our final remaining EV buses. And even more exciting than buses
would be the Bloomington North parking lot, soccer field, football stadium, and restrooms. I know there
are some folks here who are particularly excited about the restrooms at the football field. Concession
stands and lockers. And so we're very, very thrilled to be able to do that.
It's long overdue. It's necessary. And we do think it's going to be of benefit to our students. So a
question you should be asking is, how will you as the community stay informed? And the board should
be asking me, how are you going to keep us informed? Well, there are four ways that we are currently
planning on doing that. Providing quarterly updates at public board meetings so that everyone is in
the loop. Providing monthly and bimonthly dashboard updates on our website.
There will be school-specific communications that will go out to the faculty members and the employees
and the families of our schools where we, for example, the North Project, I know Mr. Stark is already
beginning to communicate with members of that community. And then there will be 24-hour access on our
website on information so that you know exactly what we're spending, what we're spending it on, and
then the status of those projects. So we're very, very excited to be able to continue to keep everyone
involved and aware.
Here are just a few frequently asked questions that I think are important for folks to know.
Most importantly, will referendum funds be used to pay for facilities projects? Thought brevity would
help here. No. Can education funds be used to pay for facilities projects? No. Will operations funds
be used to pay for these facilities projects? No.
And will these projects take money away from our teachers? Absolutely not. There may well be other questions
that folks have. And as those additional questions come forward, we will be sure to add those to our
website as well. So to learn more about our designing and building to sustain excellence and our school
finances, please go to this website. You're going to see more information about our bond-funded building
and renovation projects, what's been completed, what's in the queue, what's coming up next, and all
of our current projects.
Thank you very much for this opportunity. Every dollar, every student, it shows how we spend every dollar
to care for every one of our students. Thank you. Our next update will be May 2026. That concludes my
update. Thank you, Dr. Winston. Are there any comments from the board?
not one thank you it is a lot of information i'm just teasing you i definitely i appreciate this level
of transparency and um i know we've talked about this before but um i would extend that not only to
this presentation but i think the
Um, new portal for understanding school finances is, um, I am, I continue to be really thankful to,
uh, Sarah DeWeese and to you, Dr. Winston, um, Erwin, everyone who contributed to that. I think that's
a really important part of our, um, strategy to be transparent. I'm also glad that you mentioned the,
um, where we are in teacher salaries that were in the top 15% of the state.
I know every time we ask the community for feedback, there is a focus on making sure that we are providing
for our teachers. And I'm actually really grateful to the community for keeping the focus on teachers,
because I think everyone here knows how important that is. So I'm glad you highlighted that as well.
Thank you. Thank you for saying that. And one thing that I think is equally as important for everyone
to be aware of, our teachers are still not paid enough. I think it's important to know that while we are,
One of the best employers in the state and we pay better than most. I don't believe it's enough given
the work that we're asking our teachers to do each and every day. And I am eager to get to the point
where our salaries can continue to increase on behalf of our teachers and all of our employees. That's
a priority for all of us. And I think with the fiscal discipline that we're showing now, in the future
we will be better positioned to be able to do that.
Thank you for saying that. I think that's right. Thank you. Other comments from the board? Thank you,
Dr. Winston, again. Tonight, we will provide our community with a short yet important update on the
current Indiana legislative session. This report is going to be provided by Board Secretary Pirani.
Would you like to begin? Yes. Thank you, and good evening. The target completion date for the
Indiana General Assembly is this Friday, February 27th. We are monitoring numerous bills that impact
public education. I have three that I will highlight to you all this evening. The first one is Senate
Bill 78. This is Bell to Bell cell phone ban. This bill will prohibit the use of cell phones during
the school day and will require school corporations to do one of two things.
One, prohibit students from having a cell phone in their possession during the day, or two, establish
a storage policy to eliminate student access to their phones. There is also a provision that could allow
school corporations to charge a $25 storage fee for the purchase of storage of devices. The second one
is House Bill 1360.
The amended bill allows a public agency to create an electronic portal for receiving public records
requests, but permits an agency to deny any public records requests, whether received electronically
or otherwise. Sorry, lost my spot. There we go. That agency suspects to be data scraping or phishing
activity. Additionally, the bill allows a public agency to deny a request for public records
if the request is made by a person who is party to a pending or ongoing litigation and is duplicative
of a discovery request made by the person in the pending or ongoing litigation. This bill moves to the
floor of the Senate for a second reading. And then last but not least is House Bill 1242, Education Reports.
This bill calls for the Department of Education to conduct efficiency studies on public schools in three
areas, operation efficiency, decreasing costs, and improving student outcomes. In addition, a second
study is requested that will examine per student operational costs in public schools. As always, you
can go to our website under the Board of School Trustees tab.
And there's a link that you can see our legislators that you can contact on any of these bills or others,
as well as our monthly updates. Thank you. Are there any comments from the board? I just want to highlight,
we talked about Indiana statistics, and I just want to point out the abysmal voter turnout rates for Indiana.
I'm going to echo that and say that if you are going to be 18 by the time of the 2026 elections, so
that might be for any students,
You can register to vote any time prior to then, so please do just keep that in mind and do that so
that you can take part in your civic duty. But yeah, we need everybody out there voting. Thank you,
Secretary Prani, and thank you for the encouragement to vote, Erin and April.
Are there any reports from other committees or final comments from the board? I can just say that I
did attend the MCCRB Foundations board meeting today. There's no need for details. She was here today
and gave an overview. Thank you, Asia. I appreciate that.
And finally, Dr. Winston, do you have any additional information to share with us tonight? Just a couple
of items. Black History Month. As you know, this month, our country celebrated Black History Month.
And throughout this month, many of our schools have engaged our students in a number of meaningful and
relevant learning experiences that uplift black history, culture, and voices. Student athletes. We're
winding down the winter athletic season with so many of our teams and student athletes achieving great
things. Girls wrestling.
Bloomington South placed fourth in the regionals with five student athletes competing at state. Bloomington
South girls basketball won sectionals. Bloomington South girls swimming competed at state. With Hadley
Laughlin placing fifth in the girls one meter diving competition. Boys swimming and diving. Swimming
and diving state preliminary prelims begin this Friday. And state swimming and diving will conclude
on Saturday. Both north and south will be represented at the state.
Boys Wrestling, Bloomington South's wrestling team was sectional and regional champions, and had one
wrestler advance to state, and boys basketball. Sectionals begin next Tuesday, March 3rd, with South
playing Martinsville, starting at seven, and then on Saturday, March 6th, North will play Terre Haute at 6 p.m.
The games will be played in Martinsville. Muffins with Markay. This semester's Muffins with Markay listening
event will be held on Wednesday, March 4th,
It will be held at Grandview Elementary and I hope that those who are able can join me at 9.30 a.m.
for a conversation and as always a delicious muffin. And last but certainly not least, spring break.
In case you weren't aware, spring break is right around the corner, March 16th through the 20th. Classes
will resume on March 23rd. Everyone enjoy your time off. That concludes my report.
Thank you, Dr. Winston. That did remind me that over the weekend, I had the opportunity to attend the
poster, the Black History Month poster competition sponsored by the city. And shout out to Fairview
Elementary for having the most elementary entries for the poster competition. And Bloomington High School
North had the most high school entries for the competition. I learned a lot about black leaders at the
competition.
All the posters were amazing and those two schools in particular really showed up. Any other last-minute
comments from the board? All right. Thank you again Dr. Winston for your remarks. The next regularly
scheduled board meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 24th. We are adjourned.